Pages

Tuesday, 23 April 2013

Magic School: The Wisdom Goddess and Heresy

A series of evening classes on The Wisdom Goddess, Medieval Heresy and the Androgynous Messiah is taking place in London this May and June.

Tutor Ken Rees says about the course:

"Within spirituality and religion there have always existed power dynamics dictating what surfaces as the 'orthodoxy' and what eventually gets submerged and is consequently labelled as 'heresy'. A consistent undercurrent of the latter, best entitled 'Gnostic', has existed throughout the centuries and has found expression in a variety of contexts.

"This course will illustrate a few of these historical examples which reveal such emergent impulses and their subsequent repression. Special attention will be given to the Sophia of Gnostic cosmology, the post-exilic figure of Wisdom in the Jewish canon, and the Cathar esoteric form of Christianity in medieval Europe.

"We suggest that a key principle informing a Gnostic understanding of the person is that of the androgyne. Such a concept is found cross-culturally and cross-temporally in myth, in ritual, in the Gnostic gospels, in Jungian psychoanalysis and last, but not least, in popular culture. Such a principle can be interpreted on many different levels from the metaphysical right through to bisexuality and such androgynous figures as David Bowie. It is argued that we may all gain greater wholeness by getting in touch with such a unified viewpoint."

The Wisdom Goddess, Medieval Heresy and the Androgynous Messiah will take place every other Wednesday from 7pm - 9pm; on 15 May and 29 May, 12 June and 26 June. The fees are £7/Cons.£4. Venue: The Theosophical Society, 50 Gloucester Place, London W1U.